


profane words scrawled black across the sun

by artemidos



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, Domestic, Drabble Collection, F/M, Future Fic, Heist, Multi, Polyamory, Sugar Daddy, tagging as i go if i feel it's necessary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-08-23 23:12:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8346544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artemidos/pseuds/artemidos
Summary: a series of drabbles based on prompts from friends that i didn't feel like publishing separately.





	1. champagne life like a daddy's girl

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to sonya for this suggestion, you're my fave enabler. this is a Lot compared to my other stuff.

Manipulation is an art.

That lesson comes in the form of seventeen years old, in a bar that she wasn’t supposed to be in. She was a rosy cheeked thing fighting her inexperience. Rebellion felt necessary. It was escape from small town boredom, from mourning. It’s the same reason she pushes Kyle to kiss her in the back of the church with tongue, the same reason she almost pushes his hand up under her skirt but he tells her he can’t do that there.

There in that bar, Kate finds out that men will defend your honour if you’re pretty enough.

Kate finds out that she’s pretty enough.

The man’s blood won’t wash out of her shirt so she burns it. She hadn't watched someone get a bottle smashed over their head before. 

She learns that she can wield her body and words as brush to paint herself a better outcome, but it takes time.

The suggestion is just a joke. It’s something for a friend to say to her as she laughs through her frustration and wipes the grease of minimum wage work off her hands. Everyone knows that Kate hates her job, that her boss is a pervert on a permanent power trip. Everyone knows too that she needs the cash. Responsibility hangs heavy on her shoulders.

“Why don’t you get a sugar daddy?” Kate throws her napkin their way and takes the tray laying on the table, walking off. If she gets caught smiling she’ll never hear the end of it.

_Back to work, focus, you have a purpose and that’s keeping yourself afloat. You want to go to college, don’t you? You want to make your momma proud, don’t you?_

Fate blows Seth Gecko into her life. He doesn’t look how she expects him to, closer to a movie star than the grumpy, lonely man he reveals himself to be.

He isn’t looking for permanence. He’s not interested in a prostitute. He likes the purity in her. The preacher’s daughter label that she thought had come unstuck long ago, or at least partially, flapping in the wind as she lost more and more of the girl she was. He likes her and she knows that she has to take that between her two hands and run with it. It doesn’t matter if she likes him, it matters what he can give her.

And apparently Seth has a lot to give.

They go on a date, but it feels more formal than that. It’s a business meeting. He said he didn’t want a prostitute but she supposes this is just the more live-in kind. Her hands shake and she feels like she’s going to throw up. She steels herself to iron, she becomes determined. She wears red lipstick.

In the end it’s not hard to pretend to like him. There’s incentive, and he’s not bad to look at.

It’s awkward. She asks him if he’s in the mafia and he asks if she’s Catholic. They both say no. He doesn’t tell her what he does for a long, long time. By then, she doesn’t really fucking care what it is that he does.

Kate finds out that he’s the Catholic one. Raised Catholic, anyway and hasn’t been to church in years. She speaks briefly about her faith and wonders if that’s _specifically_ what he’s into. She wonders if it gets him hard, or something. Her eyes dart down but his crotch is hidden by the table cloth. She pretends that’s what she was looking at.

They talk about other things, it becomes easier.

She sucks him off in the bathroom, and afterwards admits that’s the second time she’s done it – ever. Seth looks amused. She doesn’t admit how much she likes it. That seems a stretch too far, but she did like it. He didn’t finish in her mouth but she keeps it in mind. Maybe next time.

“You really are pure aren’t you, Katie?” Eyes move up and down her body, she doesn’t tug on her tank top to cower.

She shrugs.

He agrees to pay for college and she feels…. Calm. Better.

This isn’t perfect, this isn’t what her daddy would have wanted but it suits her just fine. She quits her job and makes sure to flip her boss off. It’s not viral video material, but it feels good.

The first time they fuck properly, Kate watches him in the mirror. The room is too lavish for her tastes. The gold is overbearing, like she’s drowning in it, but it’s a hotel room with a view and he fucks her up against the window later and she kind of likes that.

The mirror. It’s too big. His hair is a mess. He’s focused on her and she’s bent over. She can’t look at herself, her bare breasts and pale skin, the auburn hair hanging in waves over her shoulder. It’s easier to look at Seth, the way he groans and shuts his eyes, his hands on her waist are close to bruising. She had thought she wouldn’t like it. Eventually, she can no longer focus on his face and it comes down to the fact that he’s inside her, stretching her out.

She finishes herself off when he’s out of the room to dispose of the condom. He catches her and just kind of… stares. Not even at her fingers pumping in and out of her, at first. At her face, he’s watching her and she has to press it into pillow. He tells her next time he’ll make sure.

It’s just a means to an end. Seth. The sex. The money.

If this isn’t how it’s supposed to work, she doesn’t really care. They fuck and he pays for what she needs him to. They talk for hours and hours and she thinks maybe they’re like friends. She finds out about his brother and his uncle. She tentatively tells him about her brother and father.

Seth buys her pretty things, but Kate isn’t that materialistic a person. He buys her a dress in velvet and blood red and she hates it, but she wears it anyway.

She sits in his lap in the middle of a lavish restaurant and tells him to try pink next time.

He becomes an instrument to move, there are buttons to press to get her way. Playing Seth is easier than the church organ. She paints her nails red, her lips curve up into a smile. She’s sweet and gentle but whispers terrible things to him. He wants her innocence and he wants to rip it away. He wants it to return.

Seth isn’t an idiot, he knows what she does to him. This is what he asked for.

He develops some sort of fixation on her pussy. She points out that this whole thing was supposed to be about him. He insists, while looking up from between her thighs that it is. _Tastes good, baby girl._ She flushes. She burns underneath his tongue.

They learn to like fucking with limbs tangled together. They look at each other. They _really_ look.

Sometimes when they’re in public she calls him daddy, he tries to shut her up by saying that he’s going to spank her. She tells him to do it with a Bible and he chokes up.  

Kate keeps telling herself it’s just a means to an end.

She can stop at any time.

Seth tells her he loves her by accident as he comes in her mouth.

If she wanted to say it back, it’s not like she could.

For her nineteenth birthday he takes her away and they spend the whole trip pretending to be married. If it’s some sort of reward, she doesn’t know what she’s done besides for getting a year older. People stare, they stare back.

They get couples massages and sip alcoholic drinks by the pool even if she’s technically not supposed to be touching the stuff. Kate walks around in only bikinis and he revels in taking every single one off her. They go to the beach at night and realise it’s easier to fuck in the pool. They fuck in the pool.

Kate starts college with no idea what she wants to major in. She doesn’t even ask about the apartment, he just tells her to look for one a few weeks before orientation with her laying on his chest, hand palming his cock in his boxers.

He pretends she isn’t one of the only good things in his life. She bats her lashes more than she needs to and says please. They fuck on a bed covered in money and she wonders if there’s a metaphor in that. It leaves imprints in her back and a paper cut she can’t smooth her finger over to sooth.

She asks if she should dye her hair red. He shakes his head. She agrees.


	2. first thanksgiving: medium hand, drywall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is a mix of a prompt based off this :https://twitter.com/electrapng/status/790673061158785032 and a conversation with mill. thanks to sonya for helping me sort it out because i just couldn't keep it sweet it's too damn hard. i tried to go domestic but this was as nice as i could get with this idea. i forced myself to keep it as short as possible.

There are some things that just don’t happen. Things that just have no possible way of going right, after everything, all the shit they’ve been through – the Geckos hosting Thanksgiving? That’s one of them.

Regardless, there they are, making the attempt _as a family_.

“How many places am I setting again?” Seth asks, looking very unlike himself with placemats in hand. It’s too domestic. The rest of him is fine, although his hair is a little longer than usual, his beard grown out. He waves the black mats towards Kate who has a hand on her hip and her phone in her hand.

“Wait.” She insists, sighing impatiently as she three dots on her screen remain there.

“I don’t know why you invited so many damn people, our table barely fits four.” He mutters, staring up at the ceiling before he goes back to watching her and waiting.

“Scott says he’s gonna be little late.”

“Great, so no place for him?” Seth raises his eyebrows.

Kate’s eyes go wide and she frowns at him. “What? No, of course you set a place for him.”

Seth groans and places one mat down on the table that he’s already adorned with a god damn table cloth and a vase full of flowers she insisted on.

Kate had been slaving away in the kitchen for hours, only allowing Richard to assist, although he could only be so much help, mostly he talked and pulled stuff out of the oven while Kate tried not to get food on her face. She had quite a lot to show for her work, displayed on the countertops and wrapped in aluminium foil waiting for their guests to finally show up.

Seth came in every now and then, mostly to clean her cheeks with his finger and give his opinion on how it tasted – usually _perfect, Katie_.

Making her way back into the kitchen, she re-tied her apron and leaned against the breakfast bar where the other Gecko sat, setting up a house of cards. They were nearing the end of the cooking now, so she cut him some slack and didn’t scold him, even if she’d had the words on her tongue.

“I keep feeling like I’m forgetting something.” She announces, watching as he balances the last of the second level.

“If someone’s forgetting something, it’s probably not you.” Richie replies, meeting her eyes for a moment and she nods, turning around as Seth finishes up with half the plates.

The turkey will still be in the oven for a while yet, so she leans in the doorway to the dining room and watches as her _husband_ – it takes a moment to remember sometimes – sets the table. He has to double back and swap around knives and forks, muttering curse words to himself but Kate doesn’t say anything, just watches him be focused on the task at hand.

It’s almost easy to forget all they’ve been through, when they’re like this, but one day in the year acting like normal people still doesn’t feel realistic. No guns, no blood, just family or what they have left of it.

Seth notices her watching him before he gets the last bit of cutlery on the table and does a double take but doesn’t move.

“I love you.” She tells him, a big amused smile on her face. They aren’t perfect, hell, they aren’t even always good, but when they are, they’re _real_ good.

Seth puts the final knife down and holds his hands on his hips.

“Be a damn shame if you didn’t”

Freddie, Maraget and Billie show up, so does Scott. For the next hour, things run smoothly. Up until the point where they don’t.

Freddie doesn’t mean to rile anyone up, that’s clear enough, but he manages it with only a few words. Aiden Tanner, up to his old disgusting antics. The Geckos had tried to make sure that name never even entered their home, but it fought its way in anyway. Freddie plans to do something about it, but the fact that he hasn’t already makes Kate seethe.  

Seth watches her cautiously and Richie stops eating all together. Scott keeps scooping mashed potato into his mouth and so does Billie beside him – who insisted on sitting there – but no one’s talking any longer.

Kate pushes her chair out, so hard that it scrapes along the floor and storms off, so her husband follows out of obligation. Neither of them can hear the people at the table and he catches her by the time she’s half way up the stairs.

“Kate.” He holds her wrists and she pulls free but doesn’t continue walking, just stands there.

“I tried. I tried to just forget about it but I can’t. It’s another layer in the crap I had to go through and I just…” Her nails are cutting into her palms so she holds out her hands, stretching her fingers. She feels antsy, like she can’t breathe properly.

“What do you wanna do? Do you want everyone to go?” He asks but she shakes her head before he even finishes his question.

“I _want_ to stop him.” Kate insists, feeling something awful down deep in her gut. Of all things, this is something she wants to fix.

Seth takes a breath, pity clear in his face and it makes her clench her jaw in annoyance.

“It’s not your responsibility to rid the world of all it’s evil, okay? You already have to deal with enough shit–“

She interrupts him with a rush of anger going straight to her head and somewhere between the yelling she manages to punch a hole in the wall. Tears stain her cheeks and Seth calms her down while Richie stands at the bottom of the stairs, watching them. It’s awkward and awful timing, but she still doesn’t want to be the one to ruin Thanksgiving.

Eventually, she realises how much her hand hurts and retreats down the stairs. Richie insists everyone go into the living room but Margaret stays next to Kate when she takes her seat at the table again, holding a squirming Billie on her knee. Kate is gritting her teeth as she waits for Seth to bring her ice, holding onto her hand.

“Sounded like you have a mean right hook.” Maggie says as Billie twists away from her again, complaining.

“Thanks.” She replies, wincing as she moves.

Seth returns and takes Maggie walks off to distract her daughter in the living room. They don’t have much in the way of toys or kids movies, but it’ll be better than hanging out in the dining room with Aunt Katie when she’s pissed off and in pain. Besides, Scott is there and as Kate watches Billie sit down next to him she thinks she might have developed a little crush.

She takes the ice from Seth’s hands, pressing it against her fist and takes a deep breath. In through her nose out through her mouth, something she and Richie try to practice when the past becomes overwhelming.

“We could always order a hit on him, I know a guy.” Seth suggests, after a little while. He’s pushed their chairs closer together.

“You know a guy who kills culebras for a living?” Kate asks, her voice still a little shaky.

“Richie might know a guy.” He’s trying to make her laugh but she doesn’t budge, only goes from looking annoyed to possibly indifferent.

“Seth.” She says his name like a warning, but she knows he’s got her back. They made that agreement when he asked her to marry him, despite everything. “This is important to me.”

“We’ll do it.” He assures her. The way he looks at her isn't pure pity, it's like he's proud, or inspired... The rest of Thanksgiving is devoted to their makeshift family, but they make plans. Richie, Scott and Freddie are all more than ready to help.

And it’s not easy, but they do rid the world of one evil. 

And Seth frames the hole in the wall, much to her dismay.


	3. she was the last thing that i saw last night before i hit the ground

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is for savanah who forever ago was talking about right girl by the maine as sethkate. i kept it short because i was trying to do an exercise in not going overboard.

Getting kicked out of a bar in the middle of fucking nowhere, that’s not even possibly the worst thing on Seth’s track record.

He’s grumbling in annoyance, tipsy and pissed off because Richard has disappeared along with the car keys and his buzz wore off quickly. Stumbling back, he turns around, his leather shoes getting coated in a dusting of dirt as he turns. The smirk he had been forcing with blood now dried at the corner of his mouth fades.

Getting his ass beat by a guy much larger than him hasn’t changed much about his demeanour. He’s always been prideful and cocky which has always directly led to altercations like the one he just got himself into, but he’s hit a low. There’s not any one thing that has contributed to his fall from grace, but particularly the finalisation of his divorce had him veering off course towards the bar with twinkling lights and old country music blasting.

Against his leg, his phone buzzes but he ignores it.

The carpark is empty of patrons and inside they’re singing along to a song he hates. He clenches his jaw and continues walking.

 _Buzz, buzz, buzz_. Richie is probably calling but he doesn’t take well to abandonment. And maybe he just needs time to himself. Maybe he needs the distraction.

He spots the cab like an oasis in a desert keeping him from finding his own way to their motel and picks up speed, the wires not connecting in his head as he approaches. He knocks into some girl abruptly. She hits the ground and he blinks back to reality, reaching out a hand on instinct.

“ _Shit_ , sorry sweetheart.”

“That’s alright.” It sounds like she’s forcing the words, the twang in her voice just barely there. Cute even. And _she’s_ cute. That’s the word he absolutely has to use because there’s no way she was at that bar legally. Small and pretty, with dark hair, a dusty pink dress and denim jacket.

He helps her up and she continues to grip his wrist for a moment too long.

Suddenly he’s hyper-aware of the blood by his lip and his thumb moves over it. It’s tacky, stuck to his skin and he rubs at the stain in his stubble, coating his already dirty finger in red.

His eyes flicker to her and she’s watching him curiously, the crease between her eyebrows showing she’s endeared by his effort to cover up whatever shit he’d gotten himself into. Then she’s swiping her tongue over the pad of her tongue, leaving him in a trance as she reaches up, brushing his thumb aside. His hand drops and his skin feels like he’s been branded by her, the way she cleans it up like she knows him. The world feels fuzzy, he can’t hear, just stare at her as she concentrates. Then she’s still.

“Oh… I must be _really_ drunk.” She giggles, bringing the hand over her mouth. He wants to pull it back to his own.

“S’alright.” He smiles.

The cab driver beeps the horn and they both jump. At some point while he yells at them, they both get into the car. It’s a mistake, but Seth isn’t about to fight fate.

In the backseat, they forget the rest of the world. They forget what exactly they were supposed to be doing. Seth forgets the car and his brother and the fact that at some point a fist connected with his jaw. There’s just her, looking at him in the darkness. They move past streetlight and the light moves over her slowly and he wants to follow the path with his hands. His head is still swimming with alcohol but now with attraction too.

“What’s your name?” He asks her, body twisted towards her and his fingers curling around her headrest, accidentally brushing against strands of her hair.

“Fuller. Kate Fuller.”

It’s still not even close to the worst thing on his track record when he leans forward and crashes into her, this time with his mouth. 


	4. that's not what this bitch wants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is for carol who gave me a prompt before the finale about the geckos and kate teaming up BUT i tried to obviously make it a little different. it's pretty au but i think you can kind of see what i've done. i threw not going overboard out the window because i've been writing this for like 3 weeks.

It happens like this:

Three people.

One major fuck up in three parts.

The team up of the century.

More fuck ups; some accidental, some on purpose.

Then?

They pull it the fuck off.

* * *

As fate would have it, Seth isn’t the only one who has pin pointed the perfect moment to target one of the richest men in Texas.

Vanessa – who was apparently done with his ass this time – had warned him a month earlier. He hadn’t seen her in three years, not since their attempt at marriage fell apart. Or maybe that didn’t quite cover it. Their relationship was messier than that, with screaming matches across their apartment, plates being hurled at his head. They were as toxic as they got, even if they were in love.

They met up in a diner and she wasn’t exactly enthralled to see him. She gave him information she had on the guy and told him she was done with his way of life, got a bar of her own and got swept off her feet. It made him chuckle underneath his breath – because was anyone ever really done with this life?

“Where’s Richie, Seth?” She asked, settling her sunglasses on the bridge of her nose as she prepared to leave. When they parted ways, it would likely for even longer than last time, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it.

“No idea.” He slipped out of the booth before she could ask more questions.

Seth attributes his bitterness over her moving on to the fact that he’s an asshole.

Standing in the bathroom of a casino, he splashes his face with water and regrets wearing a three piece suit. He had undone the jacket long ago but he was sweating through the thing.

Pulling off something like this alone… It wasn’t easy. And he hasn’t pulled off much of anything in a while. The gun tucked in his back of his pants feels like it’s branding him. He takes a final breath and exits he room, breezing past people as he makes his way up stairs. His footsteps echo.

* * *

Kate falls into this profession like most people – by accident. She isn’t born and bred for a life of crime, it just happens to her. It takes her by the arm and calls her ma’am and reads her the bible before bed every night.

She never saw herself at the ripe age of twenty fixing to marry a man who lies and steals and tells her that it’s what God wants. She grows accustom to it all, she learns it. The gun, the charm, all of it. One minute they’re shooting cans out in the middle of nowhere and the next she’s got a balaclava over her head and a revolver clasped in her hands.

The day he puts hands on her she leaves him in the dust and takes his truck but carries on his legacy. She keeps the connections too, learns how to run a bigger con, take a bigger prize. All on her own. Kate’s got the kind of determination that could end wars, sink ships.

This particular man is just a job, an opportunity she can’t pass up but it’s the biggest thing she’s ever attempted. Her dress is suffocating her and she’s been visiting him right there in that bar, a pretty thing too young for even a drink. Most of the time he talks straight to her bust and she thanks God for push up bras.

That’s now she knows he’ll be waiting. She walks right past the bar and focused on the band around her thigh where her gun waits. When she manages to get past security – because they’re missing – she knows something is wrong, but she doesn’t turn back. Even if it’s just to figure out what in the hell that is.

“You gotta be shitting me.” She mumbles as she uses her foot to nudge the door open. There seems to be an argument on the other end.

* * *

Richie is the first to enter the room but not the last.

He’s the fastest because he doesn’t call himself a prodigy without good reason to. He’s dedicated his life to putting down scores and that’s what he’s been attempting the past few months. The success isn’t exactly back to his old level, but he figures there’s time to move up. He figures that this man in particular will be his way of being who he was again.

Even if that feels impossible.

(Eddie told him once that a Gecko man without his brother won’t amount to shit, but Eddie said a lot of things.)

To say he took a prolonged leave of absence from his life of crime is an understatement. He gets a college degree out of boredom. He spends time in the desert. He grows out a beard and loses himself in grief. He gets and subsequently abandons a girlfriend. It doesn’t matter in what order.

This has been his life so long. This is what he needs to be doing, he knows that as soon as he manages to take out a guard and it makes him feel alive, a blip in the monotone. A rush to the head. He calms down and finishes the rest of it, he moves into the room like the fucking expert he is and gets started on the safe.

Seth enters at some point with a gun in his hand. It hits Richie like a wave and he has to steady himself, looking up at his brother and reaching for his own gun.

“Keep your hands off it.”

“Threatening your own brother. Five years on and you’re still a dick.”

“Five years on and you’re still fucking up the plan.” Seth holds the gun tighter, the barrel pointed right at his forehead. They haven’t stood like this in a long time.

Richie narrows his eyes. “What are you gonna do, shoot me?”

“Go for it. Means I have one less thing to take care of.” Comes a voice from the other side of the room.

* * *

A week later, Kate has the both of them sitting at a table with her as she finishes off a glass of red wine. It took _effort_ to get them there, but she wasn’t giving up that easily. She needed to make up for lost opportunity, and these two brothers, no matter how estranged they were, they would be her golden ticket.

“Are they even legally allowed to serve you alcohol?” Seth asks, disgruntled at the lack of control he has over the situation. She’s shushed him too many times, mostly because she knows that she can.

“I’m persuasive.” She replies, smirking and turning her gaze to Richie, who’s just been staring at her like he wants to rip her dress off. There’s a refusal to let it shake her, but he’s resilient.

The room is relatively empty besides for them, but that’s because she charmed the owner a long time ago. She would order them dinner, but she’s not interested in treating them to anything until they’re on her side. The red table cloth drapes over her lap and everyone but Kate begins to look dejected after a while, bored of her insistence that they find some patience. She’s making them wait because she wants them to know that she has the power to. It’s not like they’ve come willingly, but Kate’s enjoying the silent torture just a little bit.

Eventually, one of them snaps.

“If this is all we’re doing, I’d rather just be on my way,” Seth turns his head, but Kate presses the gun into his knee and he stops, glancing down. Turning entirely to the side, he pulls the table cloth up and immediately throws himself back in his chair, shaking his head. “You have a gun pointing at my balls. This is great.”

Richie smiles like she wasn’t doing the same to him. Maybe he’s impressed.

Kate finishes her drink and gets to business explaining what she has in mind. The three of them, a one off, a bigger target than the guy who owned the one casino they all fucked up in. A bigger payoff too, naturally. Split three ways, they would never have to see each other again. Kate recognised their strengths. Richie knew the technical stuff like the back of his hand, he knew plans and the ins and outs. Seth was as good a front man as any and knew the art of persuasion through the barrel of a gun. She was charming in a way neither of them could manage. 

She doesn’t know what broke up their partnership and couldn’t care less, she just wants to win.

Regardless, it seems they need to talk it out before they’re convinced to join the team, so Kate plays councillor.

“You know, I’ve heard stories about you two.” She relaxes the grip on her gun, losing her amusement and indifference for the time being. “The infamous Gecko brothers. Or famous, depending what circles you run in, I guess. You were so _loyal_ to each other, the kind of partnership you can only dream of. I don’t see where that went wrong.”

That’s a lie on her part. She’s heard the stories of that too.

They talk and she listens. Together the two perspectives paint the story she’d heard. One brother got too overzealous and controlling, the other too impulsive in his search for greatness. It seemed a classic story to her and not one she couldn’t undo. They were brothers, before anything else.

“We don’t work well together anymore.” Seth insists and Kate shakes her head.

“Yes you do. That doesn’t just go away.” She purses her lips. “He’s your brother. That doesn’t go away either.”

Eventually they were listening to her, somewhat begrudgingly. Neither wanted to work together, but both wanted what would come out of doing this with her. One heist. That all it needs to be, and they’re all hungry for something. They make plans to meet up again and Seth is the first to stalk off once they’re done. She warns that she’ll find him if he runs, but she isn’t worried.

They all have rooms at the same hotel.

* * *

Richard’s eyes under his horn-rimmed glasses are still trained on her. The room is mostly quiet. There’s nothing to focus on but each other and Kate is doing her best not to make it more than it is.

“I’ve never met someone like you.” He tells her point-blank and it throws her off, her eyebrows lifting up in confusion which she quickly hides. He’s an extraordinary kind of honest, like he just says whatever his brain comes up with, at least to her. It takes her time to figure out why.

The corners of Kate’s lips curve upwards and she keeps her eyes on him, putting her gun into her purse. “That’s unfortunate.”

“Let me walk you to your room?” Richie is stretched across the table towards her as he asks.

Time ticks by, she narrows her eyes, peers at the clock and shrugs. “Well, we’re going the same way.”

It was the closest thing to a yes. She keeps beside him and listens with a kind quality that she often kept hid away. He brought it out possibly without intending to and she almost didn’t like him for it. It only drew him closer. The guard he should have had up was down and he sparked laughs from her lips. The walk was over too soon and somehow this is where they end up.

She’s sitting on the bed, kicking her heels off while he keeps changing the channel. The television blinks at her.

“Just turn it off.” Kate says and stands, taking the remote from his much larger hands. She thinks about his hands around her neck once with paranoia and once with something she wasn’t ready to name aloud.

They take all the little bottles of alcohol from the mini-fridge. They go back to the bed together, talk more sitting on the edge beside each other. They end up close, enough so that she can see that his skin is dotted with freckles and he knows exactly what shade of green her eyes are. Kate’s already had enough to get her tipsy by the time she’s finished her little bottle of vodka, throwing the rest of it back.

“I don’t see my daddy much anymore.” Kate catches herself saying it too late, giving away something personal. His eyes are trained on her lips.

“Why not?”

Eyes move down, gaze burning a line into her skin down to her cleavage. It’s a dress much less low cut than she’d been wearing the first time she saw him and yet her skin still flushes.

The question goes ignored. “I don’t even know why I’m talking to you about this. We have a business arrangement. It’d be silly to throw that all away on a little heart to heart.”

“You’re right.” He tells her.

He’s leaning in but she doesn’t stop him. He smells like something she can’t identify, it’s clean and crisp. It’s _inviting_. She’s still telling herself no when they kiss. It’s awkward and slow until it it’s heated.

They shift back on the bed, her on top of him. Richie kisses her everywhere and they don’t take it slow. With a struggle, her underwear comes off but not her dress and he’s still in his dress shirt and slacks. It’s a heated messy moment and he’s tugging her forward so she sits up, not pressed against him any longer. Her mouth goes dry when she realises what he’s trying to do.  

“Oh, _that’s_ what you want?” The dress she’d been wearing falls off her shoulders and she hikes it up at her waist.

He nods slowly until her legs are on either side of his face and holds her hips down with the big hands she’d been fixated on. Kate shifts down lower and he’s there with his mouth and she can’t keep her eyes open or keep her own mouth shut. She pitied whoever was staying in the room over.

There’s power in riding his face and it sends her over the edge until she can no longer take it.

It stays between the two of them for only a day or so before Seth catches on.

“You two are fucking?” It’s incredulous to him.

He walks off muttering about how they’re gonna get them all killed. They get back to plans and put them in motion. Things begin to look like they’re going to work out. Kate makes a game of irritating Seth and working Richie up until one is slamming the door and the other is slamming her up against the wall.

* * *

It’s the night before the biggest day of her life so far and Kate is repeating mantras to herself walking back and forth in her hotel room. Richie is busy, putting into place last minute motions and she’s feeling the absolute need for release. At first she’s not going to Seth for that, but rather because of a lack of options. It all becomes the same thing.

She’s knocking against his door with her knuckles and then standing in the doorway. He opens it in boxers and she doesn’t hide the way her eyes immediately shift downwards.

“Surprise. I cleaned out my mini-fridge.” It’s a lame excuse and she skips past him.

“You need something?” He doesn’t sound as irritated as he usually does.

Kate shakes her head no and spends the next two minutes deciding whether drinking is going a step too far. Instead she takes out a soda and throws Seth a chocolate. He pushes it off his torso as he lays back on his bed.

“You’re paying for that.”

“ _Stingy_.”

Crawling into the bed beside him, she lays on her stomach, her tank top barely reaching the top of her shorts. The room is warm, like he hasn’t opened the balcony door or the windows. She wonders how much time he’s actually spent there.

Pressing against him, she’s even warmer and she presses her nose to his, a smile on her lips.

“You’re not supposed to fuck the night before.” It’s not a response she expects. In fact, she half expects him to say something about his brother but he doesn’t. Maybe he wants it because of that and not in spite of it. And she knows he wants her. It’s pretty clearly evident if she peers down.

“You think abstaining from sex will make you better at heisting?”

“Good point.”

Seth rolls over onto her and she wraps her legs around him. Close again, she presses her forehead against his and parts her lips, brushing the lower one against his. When they finally do kiss it runs through her whole body the tingle lasts even when he pulls away. They’re in that same position with her underneath again later as he fucks her. They’re clinging to each other, sweaty and desperate. It feels different with Seth, but just as good. It makes her scream just the same. (She pities Seth’s neighbours too.)

Later on, while he lazily traces patterns over her stomach and she’s itching for him to dip down, she decides she could get used to the both of them.

“You never told me how old you were.” He mutters, pressing a kiss to her stomach.

“Twenty-one next month.”

Seth makes a sound like a growl against her skin.

Richie catches on fast, but he isn’t mad. Neither of them seem to care all that much that she’s had her way with the both of them. As they make their way down in the elevator covered in mirror and she smirks, they look at each other and then to her. There’s a mutual agreement but she isn’t sure what it is, or if it’s completely unspoken. Part of her becomes scared that if they’re getting along well it means that they’ll turn on her, but it’s a little late for that once they’re getting into the car.

In the backseat, she squeezes in between them.

“Should we say it?” Richie asks but Seth only looks lost.

“Say what?”

Kate interrupts. “I usually pray beforehand.”

“ _What_?” Seth turns his head to her with his eyebrows furrowed.

She takes both of their hands. “Our Father, who art in Heaven…”

Turns out they know it too.

It goes far from perfectly, but they never expected that.

Everyone plays their part. Kate spends time downstairs with an earpiece in, giggling and trying not to gag as wrinkly lips press against her hand. Throwing back drinks that have no alcohol, she feigns tipsy and does all but kiss the man. Richie and Seth work like a machine upstairs, methodically taking out obstacles until Kate meets them. Nobody plays the hero, they have an objective and they reach it and call her up. She pretends to go off to powder her nose.

It’s the three of them standing there together when they know they’ve won. She kisses them both and they get the fuck out of dodge.

* * *

They’ve got enough money between them to last them a long, long time. They got out of the US quickly and found themselves somewhere in Mexico down a dirt road and playing a selection of throwback songs that Kate has put together to set the mood. She is always warm and she is always smiling. The boys are thankful and they show it as often as possible.

In return, she’s herself. They’ve been driving for hours and her skin is already slick with sweat. Undoing her seatbelt, she takes the middle of the backseat. She hikes her dress up and they both notice it through different mirrors. She still likes to torture them.

“Don’t turn around.” She says.

They keep driving.


	5. i couldn't care for the history, when i've got you in front of me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this prompt was literally rk + date night but because i'm trying to keep these short you didn't actually get the date part. i promise i'll make it up to you in one of my future fics I'M KEEPING IT SHORT. anyway, like that says. this is richiekate + date night for heaven. title comes from kimbra's 'two way street'.

“I thought we were going to dinner.” Kate said, twisting the pencil skirt on her hips as she tried to get the seams to look right against her frame. It was a tan coloured leather, not her usual look but she was trying something different.

“We are.” Came the voice from the other room.

Richie had been ready for the last half hour, having only changed his tie to something nicer, although to Kate it looked about the same as she one he had started his day in. They were both skinny and black, both looked nice against his white shirt. Not that she’d mention any of that, because it would bother him and then he’d feel the need to explain the difference.

There are plenty of topics Kate loved to listen to him talk about, but ties weren’t one of them.

“Then what are the tickets in your pocket for?” She asked, making sure her bra straps were hidden underneath the white top she’d picked out as she exited the bedroom.

“So that wasn’t just an unprompted hug because you love me.” He caught on and as he spoke, she made her way into the living room, heels clicking against the tiled floor.

Kate’s eyes shot up, a guilty smile on her lips. “Can’t it be both?”

“We shouldn’t have taught you that.”  

He didn’t mean it.  

“You like it when I pick up fast.”

She reached out her hands to him, pretending like she was strong enough to pull his heavy frame from where he sat on the couch. He took her hands anyway, pulling himself up and making sure she stayed upright instead of stumbling backwards. Their hands remained together, fingers lacing as Kate lifted them up between their bodies.

Date night was a weekly tradition, something Kate suggested that Richie took to with the kind of flair only he could have. At first it’d been her trying to plan little moments for them during their Friday nights, or making their trips out to bars more formal but he’d taken over planning and things had gotten progressively more extravagant. Last week they’d gone out dancing and he’d taught her how to waltz without explaining why he knew how until she got him vulnerable in bed later on. He liked to leave outfits on the bed for her and notes with clues but she usually got it out of him before they got out the door. He never was very good at saying no to her.

“So?” She asked as Richie began to lean down. It was a little easier when she wore shoes that gave her a little bit of height. These particular shoes were favourites, a shiny red with a platform so she didn’t have to spend half her night on her toes.  

“So?” He repeated and his lips brushed over hers.

Kate closed the distance without much prompting, although they would need to leave soon to make their reservation. Eventually, she pulled back from the kiss but kept him close, her nose bumping his gently.

“What are they? I didn’t try to steal them because you would have noticed.”

He chuckled. “There’s a double feature. Couple of old Westerns.”

“I should’ve known.”

Movie marathons were commonplace in the house together, part of Kate’s cinema classics education, but they hadn’t gone out to see anything in a while. It was a sweet gesture, even a little normal for his standards. His knuckles brushed by her cheek, still interconnected with her own. Her eyes stayed shut while the two of them were pressed close together.

“I booked out the whole theatre.” Richie explained. Not so normal after all.

“Romantic.” She teased, leaning in to kiss him again.

“Yeah?” He was looking for reassurance.

He wasn’t always sure with what he gave her and she could understand that. Things between them were very different and very real, compared to relationships he’d had in the past. He could go a little overboard, but she appreciated all of it and showed him as much. This was a sweet gesture, really. 

“We won’t have to deal with anyone shushing us, for once.” Kate added, with a giggle.

“That guy was an asshole; I don’t talk _that_ much. There are just things you need to know sometimes.”

“I know.” She laughed, pressing her lips to his in an effort to distract him.

The time went ignored, it was just the two of them for the moment, their closeness a source of comfort for them both. The moment faded and they unwrapped themselves from each other. Kate used her index finger to try and clean up her glossy lips and then reached up to use her thumb to clean the shine off Richie’s but he pulled away, licking over it.

“So it’s really fine?” He asked again as she grabbed a tissue to clean off her hands. She’d have to start wearing something less sticky, even if Richie liked that it tasted like strawberry.  

Kate thought about it for a second and then replied, her eyes narrowed. “Do you actually want to _watch_ the movies at all?”

Richie shrugged, giving her a once over as he swiped the car keys off the kitchen counter.

“I was considering it.”

They don’t.


End file.
